1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a game played with tiles (or cards). More particularly, the game according to this invention may be played with two to eight players, one of whom acts as a dealer. The objective of the game is for players to arrange their cards into hands that have a higher ranking than that of the dealer.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The game of "Pai Gow" is representative of the prior art pertaining to the type of game of the present invention. Pai Gow, likely the forerunner of what is known in the United States as "dominoes", is an ancient Chinese game played in many Asian countries. It is fast paced, exciting, perfectly adapted for wagering, and requires both luck and experience to play. Pai Gow uses 32 dominoes, each of which has two to twelve dots. Each player is dealt four of the tiles. From these four tiles, a player forms two "hands", a high hand and a low hand, each hand comprising two tiles. The object of the game is to obtain a high hand that ranks higher than the dealer's high hand, and a low hand that ranks higher than the dealer's low hand. To win, a player must prevail in both hand comparisons.
Pai Gow can be played at home but has become a popular game in casinos throughout the world. Most major Las Vegas and Atlantic City hotels have at least one Pai Gow table going at any given time. The game is also played in casinos in other states that have legalized gambling. However Pai Gow is not an easy game to learn because its ranking system for prevailing hands is not based on a logical mathematical sequential progression. The domino values represent not so much numbers as they represent Chinese symbols for concepts or objects such as "double heaven" or "double earth". For example, the highest hand in Pai Gow is the "Supreme" combination of the three-dot tile and a six dot tile. This hand is superior to the next ranking hand of a pair of twelve-dot tiles, otherwise known as "Double Heaven". In the comparison of these two described hands, a pair of identical tiles does not necessarily outrank two tiles that are not identical (two tiles that do not form a pair).
To further illustrate the complexities of the prior art game, the third highest possible hand is comprised of a pair of identical two-dot tiles. The fourth highest possible hand consists of a pair of identical eight-dot tiles. Thus, while a pair of identical twelve-dot tiles (the second highest possible hand) defeats a pair of identical two-dot tiles, the latter prevails over a pair of identical eight-dot tiles. Therefore one cannot gauge a winning hand by its numerical magnitude, because the pairs do not follow a number sequence from highest to lowest or vice versa. Persons unfamiliar with the rules become further perplexed when "mixed" hands, combining non-identical tiles, are played without regard to a rational set of rules based on the numerical value of dots or dot combinations. For example, a combination of a two-dot tile and a nine-dot tile defeats a hand comprising a twelve-dot tile and an eight-dot tile.
The difficulty of learning Pai Gow is compounded by the use of red and white dots to represent tile values. While an experienced player may know the value of the dotted-tiles at a glance, less experienced players will need precious time to "count" the dots, time that may be more advantageously used to arrange the tiles into the most beneficial combinations.
Because of the complex and irrational ranking system of Pai Gow, the players at the Pai Gow tables found in the United States tend to be overwhelmingly Asians who have played this game for a long time. Non-Asians and Asians who are inexperienced in this game do not play, or even bother to learn, the game because they are intimidated by the illogical rules for ranking, the fast pace of the playing, and the substantial amount of time it would take to learn the game.